2005 Season Races 12 and 13
Laguna Seca 10/1/2005

A substitute race in the 2005 4 Flight S2 Cup calendar, the San Francisco Region's October Double Regional at Laguna Seca provided a return trip to the famous corkscrew for nine Sports 2000 drivers. All of the season's top drivers showed up to continue their fight for the year long Championship and Michael Scully returned to attempt a repeat of his Laguna domination in August. David Ferguson was there with his purple Van Diemen sporting even more data acquisition doo-dads, including a pitot tube. Championship leader Jeff Littrell was there with his crew from P1 Racing, having removed all the aero doo-dads from his Lola and looking to return to the fast form he had at Laguna in 2004. Mike Pettipone kept his perfect attendance record in tact as he fights to hold onto the third Championship rung from a hard charging Frank Arnold. Correll Engineering's second entry was Jason Choulochas, on one last fling as a bachelor before his impending wedding next weekend. John Ostlund was there with his mean green Carbir and the group was treated to an unexpected showing by Jeff Read, who has yet to move to Indiana, as well has his on-track nemesis and paddock friend Tim Moore.

Saturday's qualifying session saw Ferguson go out, lay down a new qualifying record, and calmly come in, taunting anyone to beat it. No one could. Scully was unhappy with the balance of his Swift and qualified an uncharacteristic 4th behind John Ostlund and Jeff Littrell. Four drivers in four different marques and three different tire brands. Almost like Formula One. Despite a petition from the other drivers, Ferguson was reluctant to give up his hard-earned qualify advantage so there would be no split start.

The start of the race was a typical San Francisco Region schlimazel -- with three cars (no S2s) spinning on the warm-up laps and the green flag thrown despite a formula car stranded in the dirt at the bottom of the corkscrew. Despite this, the start was clean and nary a double yellow could be found for the duration. Littrell and Scully slipped past Ostlund but Littrell was only able to hold Scully off for a few laps. In the meantime, Ferguson was slipping back and at one point the three drivers were running in formation without any annoying formula or sports racers in between. Scully eventually passed Ferguson and put some traffic between the two of them, setting a new official track record in the process, while Ferguson put a couple sports racers between himself and Littrell. Arnold had an engine misfire but otherwise the S2 group kept their noses clean to the finish. Final results where Scully, Ferguson, and Littrell on the podium.

Car No	Driver		Make	Qual Time	Qual Pos	Finish
44	Mike	Scully	Swift	1:34.731	4	1
75	David	Ferguson	Van Diemen	1:31.918	1	2
77	Jeff	Littrell	Lola	1:34.168	3	3
59	John	Ostund	Carbir	1:33.666	2	4
94	Mike	Pettibone	Swift	1:36.909	6	5
91	Jason	Choulochas	Swift	1:36.493	5	6
18	Jeff	Read	Lola	1:37.351	8	7
19	Tim	Moore	Swift	1:38.989	9	8
58	Frank	Arnold	Swift	1:36.961	7	9

After improving his car for Saturday's race, Scully took advantage to lower Ferguson's new qualifying record another couple tenths on Sunday. Littrell went faster but was still third, behind Ferguson. Ostlund slipped to 4th.

As in August, Jason Choulochas took the initiative to get an S2-only split start for this second race and Scully sportingly agreed. Ferguson took advantage of Scully's generosity and got the jump at the start, leading the Sports 2000s into turn one. Anxious to get the power down, Ostlund spun in turn 11 before getting the green flag. A number of formula cars were bashed up in the run off area of turn two but the Sports 2000 drivers were able to race past without incident. However, when the leaders hit turn three the surface was slick and Scully got loose. Littrell, only a few feet behind, checked up and then lost the rear of his Lola when he hit the slippery stuff, backing into the gravel. Tim Moore then hit the same spot and spun. Arnold had to take evasive action to avoid Moore and almost tagged Littrell in the gravel but managed to get by unscathed, as did the rest of the S2s.

From there Scully put pressure on Ferguson and took the lead. Littrell had to sit in the gravel for three laps while the formula cars were cleared from turn two, thus effectively ending his race, and putting a big dent in his championship hopes. Scully went on to win, followed by Ferguson and Arnold.

Car No	Driver		Make	Qual Time	Qual Pos	Finish
44	Mike	Scully	Swift	1:31.559	1	1
75	David	Ferguson	Van Diemen	1:32.264	2	2
58	Frank	Arnold	Swift	1:35.380	7	3
59	John	Ostund	Carbir	1:34.501	4	4
94	Mike	Pettibone	Swift	1:35.225	5	5
19	Tim	Moore	Swift	1:35.245	6	6
91	Jason	Choulochas	Swift	1:36.432	8	7
77	Jeff	Littrell	Lola	1:33.082	3	8
18	Jeff	Read	Lola	1:36.508	9	9

Ferguson's two second place finishes propel him into the Championship lead, with a seven point advantage over Littrell. Scully's perfect record of four wins in four tries put him right in the middle of the battle for 4th in the Championship, despite missing nine of the thirteen races. In fact he has a chance of taking 3rd place if he continues his domination in the final weekend of the year at Buttonwillow later this month. Pettibone will be trying hard to prevent that and Littrell will be looking to turn the tables on Ferguson, who took last year's Championship at Buttonwillow despite coming in with a similar 8 point deficit. You never know what might happen so you'd better be there to find out for yourself.